**** 12/2012 – Some stuff has changed in Busan – check out the last comments on the page for updated info. Looks like Lomography cameras are getting harder to find! I know there’s a Lomo gallery store in Seoul that you can still go to, though!****

Lomography is a whole world of analogue (i.e. non-digital) cameras. I first was introduced to it by my fiance Ssarka, who had an old Oktomat (8 mini-pics in rapid succession). We then bought a Holga (plastic lens) camera the last time we were in Korea a couple years ago. Upon arrival in Busan, we’ve gone wild. We’ve now bought a panoramic camera, a ColorSplash (colored flash), Pop-9 (3×3 pop-art box shot) and a Fisheye.

So for those of you who are into Lomo, or if you want to get into it, there are (only) a few places in Busan where you can get cameras.

1) BoDA – Nampo:

(NOTE: There were 2 locations, but last weekend (March 26), I went by the other location and it was closed with the shelves cleared out.)
The BoDA store is a combo gift shop/cafe. In addition to Lomo cameras, they have the regular gift-shop stuff – notebooks, stationery, stylish headphones, pens and other cute accessories. They also have some cool stuff from Studio Ghibli (i.e. Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery service memorabilia).

Directions: from PIFF square, go north one block (away from the metro) to the main shopping street. Turn left. It’s next to the Disney store on the left.

Here’s the sign from above ground. You have to go under to access the store, though.

2) Home by H – Seomyeon:

This shop, located in the Seomyeon underground shopping mall (Daehyeon Primall) attached to the metro, is a good place for everything electronic, especially electronic accessories. They have lots of headphones, iPhone/iPad/iPod accessories, carrying cases, tripods, as well as a few laptops, fancy cameras, routers and other computer accessories. They also have a large Hello Kitty accessory section. Very large, in fact. Their Lomography selection rivals the BoDA shop in Nampo.

Directions: From the Seomyeon metro, walk towards exit 1, but then keep going, into the underground shopping mall. go down, past the bathroom, to your first right. Between the two exits is the entrance to Home by H. It’s near a Skin Food.

Taken with our Pop-9 Lomography camera (and then edited).

3) Book (13ook? – it’s a weird font) – Kyungsung

This is a SMALL gift shop that barely has any Lomography selection. I like this place, though, because on Christmas day when I needed Fuji InstaMax wide format film, this place was open and had it. Sweet! Anyway, nothing remarkable. Only about five total cameras for sale here (just different colors of the same camera).

I don’t know where you live, but I’ve gotten some 120 film developed in Kyungsung at a place called something like “대학 photo” (university photo) or something like that, so I’m guessing they could handle 110. If you take the green line to Kyungsung, go out exit 3, about-face, turn left, and walk down 1.5 blocks or so, the camera shop it should be on your left. It has a green sign. Here’s a link to our Google map: http://g.co/maps/5xyrw.

As for DIY developing, I don’t know of any places. The best place to go for camera equipment in general is in Nampo-dong at the end of the big shopping street (the end closest to Lotte Dept Store) at the camera shops there (there should be about 5 or 6 of them). Not sure, though!

Just checked out the University Photo place today to try to get my 120 film developed. They said they didn’t and told me to go to Nampo or Semyeon. I went to Nampo and after an hour or so found a place that took the film… Hopefully, it turns out okay!

I see that this post is over a year old, so I’ll give a little update.

I’m trying to get back into film cameras. My mother is going to send me her 70s-vintage Canon SLR in a care package, meanwhile I’m using disposable 35mm cameras.

Yesterday, I was in the Lotte Mart/Toys R Us in Buam-dong (next to Seomyeon, walk out Buam subway station exit 6, walk 500 meters) and was surprised to see that they have a bunch of Lomography/Lo-fi cameras. Holgas, Diana F+, Diana Mini, Fisheye 1, and a few others.

I went to the place in Seomyeon today (November 24, 2012). It is now a bookstore, and they don’t sell any cameras. I went to the BoDA gift shop in Nampo. They sell the Fuji InstaMax cameras (the ones Koreans call polaroid-uh) but they had no idea what I was talking about when I said “toy camera” and they didn’t have any Lomography or Lo-fi cameras.

I looked at all the other camera shops on the shopping street in Nampo, and they all sell used 35mm cameras and have 35mm 100 or 200 speed film. That’s about it.

There is now a bookstore in the Seomyeon underground where The Home by H was. No cameras there at all.

I just bought a Holga at the Lotte Mart in Buam-dong. I have heard about a smaller camera shop in Nampo run by a young guy who is into Lomo/toy cameras.

I bought some film online through lomography.co.kr, but I’m still not sure where to get it developed. My guess is that I’ll end up sending it to one of the big camera shops in Seoul to be developed.

It’s one of the frustrating things about Busan. It’s such a big, cosmopolitan city that you expect to find everything here, but too often you still find that the answer to your question is, “You have to go to Seoul.”

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